Men cleared in Rooney blackmail case

Three men were cleared today of blackmailing Wayne Rooney's agentafter it emerged he had misled the court.

John Highland, Christopher Bacon and Anthony Bacon were on trial at Warrington Crown Court accused of trying to intimidate Paul Stretford into sharing the money he made by representing Wayne Rooney.

The prosecution decided today to offer no further evidence after it became clear that Mr Stretford had made false statements while giving his evidence last week.

He told the jury that he had not represented Rooney before December 2002, when the youngster was still represented by his original agent, Peter McIntosh.

But two documents were disclosed over the weekend which showed that Mr Stretford had poached the striker by September 2002.

Prosecution barrister John Hedgecoe said: "In the circumstances, and having seen those documents, in particular that one dated September 19, we do not feel able to rely on Paul Stretford as a witness in this case and in view of his importance as a witness to the way in which we have put this case from the outset, we have decided that the only appropriate course is to offer no further evidence."

Judge David Hale passed not guilty verdicts on all three men.

The case related to an incident at a Warrington hotel in June, 2003, which was secretly filmed by Mr Stretford.

He was in a business meeting when John Hyland and the Bacon brothers burst in and tried to make him sign a contract in which he agreed to split his Rooney profits 50-50.

The incident followed months of wrangling between Mr Stretford and business associates of Rooney's first agent, Mr McIntosh.

They believed Mr Stretford had poached Rooney as a client and should pay compensation.

Mr Stretford insisted he had not poached the young striker and had acted entirely honourably.

The disclosure of the new document this morning proved that Stretford had been representing Rooney while he was still under contract with Mr McIntosh.